“THE CONFERENCE WAS GOOD FOR US”

Rovers rebuilt and built better during their dalliance in non-league football, says Donny supporter James Mcmahon

I was only 18 when Rovers went down in 1998 – by then I’d been a fan for seven years. I was well aware that I supported a mediocre football club – fourth-tier perennials. But Donny were my club and I loved them. Then 1997-98 happened, and things were never the same again.

It says a lot about what’s happened to English football that I no longer think what happened to us that season was especially extraordinary. I didn’t feel like that at the time, of course. This was before Wimbledon got uprooted to Milton Keynes. Clubs like Aldershot had gone to the wall before, but I felt like a town having their team almost taken away from them by the greed and criminality of a man like Ken Richardson was obscene, and that it made us special. Now I think, ‘At least I’m not a Darlington or Hereford fan’. Which lower league side hasn’t been a crisis club at some point?

It was awful, but I’m almost ashamed to admit that events which were hugely traumatic are now recalled with something approaching affection. One week you’d go along and find ‘Richardson Out’ sprayed across the roof of the Pop Stand; another you wouldn’t see much football because hardcore fans invaded the pitch just after kick-off and sat down in the centre circle.

Now I look back and think it was quite exciting, but I’m sure I wouldn’t feel like that if we’d folded. I think many fans would admit that going down to the Conference was good for us. We rebuilt, and what we built was better than what existed before. Sometimes we chanted, ‘Just a pub team, having a laugh’, and that unity came from the rehabilitation at places such as Dover.

I often say what happened in 1997-98 politicised my fandom. It did for many of us. I stopped caring just about Rovers and started caring about the wellbeing of the game. I started looking out for other clubs in trouble. I signed the petitions. I attended the protests. I started writing for the Rovers fanzine. I even, when my knees weren’t rebelling against me, started playing for the fans’ team, Donny Arsonists. And that season did kickstart the most successful decade in my time supporting Doncaster. We really were a phoenix from the flames…

That said, every time we achieve some success, I cast my mind back to that year. I remember beating Leeds in the League One play-off final and mouthing under my breath, ‘Are you watching Richardson?’ I’ll probably be doing that as long as I live.